Mueller team: Flynn deserves no prison time
WASHINGTON — Michael T. Flynn, President Donald Trump’s first national security adviser, helped substantially with the special counsel’s investigation and should receive little to no prison time for lying to federal investigators, according to court documents filed Tuesday.
Flynn was a key cooperator who helped the Justice Department with several investigations, said prosecutors for the special counsel, Robert Mueller. Flynn sat for 19 interviews with Mueller’s office and other prosecutors and handed over documents and communications, they said.
“His early cooperation was particularly valuable because he was one of the few people with longterm and firsthand insight” into the subject of Mueller’s investigation — Russia’s election interference and whether any Trump associates conspired, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing recommendation memorandum and an addendum that was heavily blacked out.
In particular, they wrote, he may have prompted others to cooperate with the inquiry.
“The defendant’s decision to plead guilty and cooperate likely affected the decisions of related firsthand witnesses to be forthcoming,” they said.
They also indicated that Flynn helped with other investigations without revealing details about them.
Flynn is the only White House aide and the first person from the president’s inner circle to strike a cooperation deal with the special counsel’s office. He pleaded guilty a year ago to lying to the FBI about conversations he had with the Russian ambassador to the United States at the time, Sergey Kislyak.
“The defendant deserves credit for accepting responsibility in a timely fashion and substantially assisting the government,” prosecutors wrote.
The cases of other former Trump aides caught up in the special counsel investigation are also nearing resolution. By Friday, Mueller’s prosecutors are due to enumerate how they believe Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, violated a plea agreement and separately to outline the extent of cooperation by Michael Cohen, Trump’s longtime lawyer and fixer.
Another longtime Trump associate whom Mueller is scrutinizing, Roger Stone, said Tuesday that he had invoked his Fifth Amendment rights in response to a request from Democratic investigators for the Senate Judiciary Committee to hand over documents and testimony relevant to their own Russia inquiry. Stone’s lawyer, Grant J. Smith, said the committee’s request was “overbroad” and stressed that Stone was “an innocent citizen who denounces secrecy.”
The letter was dated Monday, the same day Trump praised Stone on Twitter for having the “guts” to stand up to Mueller. Stone’s lawyer said the letter was sent before Trump’s tweet.
Close observers of Mueller’s investigation had hoped his team might provide revealing details about possible cooperation between Trump associates and Russia, but in typical fashion, the special counsel’s office kept its cards closely held.